Last summer, I wrote an article condemning the South African government for its provincial policy towards the treatment of HIV/AIDS, which kills more people in South Africa than in any other country in the world.
I condemned the government because, instead of adopting the established pharmacological protocols that have proved most effective, it sent Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada last summer to try to convince delegates that her concoction of garlic, lemon juice, and beetroot was better.
Nonetheless, a new law comes into force today in South Africa which I’m obliged to acknowledge as an act of considerable redemption for this government. Because the good news is that, after its Constitutional Court became the first in the world to codify civil rights for homosexuals last year, South Africa’s Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka signed the Civil Union Act this week which gives same-sex couples the right to marry.
Celebrated lesbian couple Bathini Dambuza, left, and Lindiwe Radebe, right, show off their engagement rings as they pose for a photograph on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006.
Of course, what is so extraordinary about this act is that it contravenes the same cultural taboos that compel the government to promote bush medicine instead of anti-retroviral drugs to treat HIV/AIDS. Moreover, it defies the homophobia that is as inherent throughout (paternalistic) sub-Saharan Africa as the incidence of this deadly virus is pandemic; which explains the following quote by the Christian Action Network in reaction to this law:
To force the morality of the radical homosexual minority on the people of South Africa through law is, in effect, to lead the masses astray.
However, notwithstanding these contradictions, I am happy to recognize this historic step South Africa has taken to advance the cause of international civil rights for homosexuals.
Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika
NOTE: Today is World Aids Day. Please take a moment to reflect on those who suffer the ravages of this disease. Click here for more information and to see how you can help.
ENDNOTE: Six months ago, I predicted that the Privy Council in London would rule against the Trinidadian chief justice and authorize his arrest for trying to fix the corruption trial of his friend, the former Trinidadian prime minister. Well, the PC handed down its ruling yesterday, and I expect the CJ to be arrested soon.
Click here to read my article on this Caribbean scandal published today at CNN.
UPDATE (11:20am): After reading this article, a friend – who happens to be a medical doctor – emailed the following prescriptive observation:
Given the millions of orphaned (AIDS) babies in Africa and that women – who comprise the overwhelming majority of Africans living with HIV – are invariably infected by unfaithful and irresponsible men, promoting lesbianism might just be the best way to combat the spread of this deadly virus….
Related Articles:
South Africa: More reviled for its “fight against Aids” than the US is for its “war on terror”?
South Africa, same sex marriage
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